Reternity Online : Rescue Quest : DIRECTOR'S CUT : a LitRPG Epic

by Baron Sord

Thanks. Keep your head in the game. We’re here for Emily, remember?

  KingFarthurT:> Don’t act like I’m the one drunk on power, bro. You were the one who got me into this.

  Could you blame me for enjoying this? I mean, just for a few more seconds?

  SigurdDärksvärd:> Regardless. Stay focused.

  KingFarthurT:> Wait, hold on. Here comes another Dark Orken. Gimme a second to take him out—

  WHOOSH! Ba-BOOM!!

  Before I had time to react, the chunky wrecking ball swung by the Plague Behemoth came crashing down right where I stood. I hadn’t seen it coming. Even though my Snake Strike was off, with my new Dodge skill leveled to 13, I somehow managed to jump back just in time, feeling the wind breeze past my face. The aftershock of the weapon’s impact on the ground was so intense, I ended up falling in the mud, but so did everybody else in the vicinity. Except for the Dark Orken who I’d been about to engage with a second ago. Now he was crushed under the wrecking hunk, nothing more than a mess of black blood in the mud.

  I chuckled to myself, Did anybody get any XP for that?

  The Behemoth roared and ripped the wrecking hunk out of the ground by the chain, preparing for another attack. It swung the mass of deadly steel in the air in a huge 200 foot diameter circle. When that thing came down…

  Da-GOOM!!

  The steel hunk smashed into one of the dead black trees in the mind-lock graveyard behind us, shattering it into splintered shrapnel. A pale and limp white body also went flying, soaring a hundred yards before it got lost in the fog.

  I froze.

  Had that been Emily?

  Oh no.

  What would happen to her if she died while mind-locked?

  Would she die too?

  No, no no!

  Her real body wouldn’t die if her character died, but if we couldn’t talk to her here in the game, how would we ever find her in the real world? Our entire rescue mission depended on breaking her out of mind-lock so she could tell us where the kidnappers were holding her.

  My power-mad play time was over.

  KingFarthurT:> Jason! This is bad!

  SigurdDärksvärd:> Sorta busy…

  I tried looking around for him, but I was in the middle of total chaos as the battle raged around me at full speed, now incredibly loud and overwhelming without the slow-motion cocoon of Snake Strike.

  A Dark Skeleton hurled itself at me sword first. I dodged and it stumbled into a nearby Toadax.

  KingFarthurT:> Jay, if that Behemoth destroys Emily’s tree, how’re we gonna find out where she is in Bangkok?

  SigurdDärksvärd:> Fuck! You’re right. I’ll take care of it.

  He didn’t sound too sure.

  I couldn’t wait around.

  I charged my saber full of mana. As soon as it was throbbing with electric energy, I—

  Da-GOOM!!

  The Behemoth’s wrecking chunk crashed down, destroying another dead tree and whoever was trapped inside, flattening branches into the black mud.

  “Fuck!”

  I activated Snake Strike before the Behemoth could retrieve his killing ball. The battlefield slowed and quieted. I ran right up the killing ball’s chain. With my heightened Accuracy, keeping my balance on the links was easy. I bounded from one to the next in no time, doing the nearly impossible. Although time had slowed, things were still moving. It turned out 1/7th speed wasn’t even close to fully stopped.

  That meant the Behemoth was still moving. When I hopped from its chain onto the thing’s diseased fist, I hadn’t noticed the purplish grimy slime that leaked from sores all over its naked body, but I was already in the air, so I couldn’t stop myself.

  When my heel touched down, I had that sickening feeling you get when you unexpectedly step on ice or a banana peel, and my leg shot out from underneath me, launching me in the air. To my surprise, I curled myself into a ball, knees to chest, and backflipped around gracefully. But I was still about 10 feet above the ground and still backflipping and falling at normal speed for me. If I didn’t stop my spin and catch something, I could easily smack into the ground head first or spine first or face first. So I did what came naturally: I flailed my arms and reached for the nearest thing I could grab.

  In this case, it was the Plague Behemoth’s arm.

  Luckily, I was positioned so that I got my arms far enough around it to grab hold. The rest of my body kept going, crashing my chest hard against its muscled flesh. The flesh was slightly spongy, which cushioned the impact somewhat and prevented me from bouncing completely off, but I still hit hard enough to lose 5% of my Health. No big whoop. I also smacked my face directly against its gooey skin. As I started to slide off the slippery fat forearm, I clawed away with my left gauntlet and hammered the pommel of my saber into its skin like an ice ax. It sunk deep and stopped me from sliding off.

  Good, right?

  Wrong.

  Because what I thought was spongy flesh was actually dirty purple blisters that tore open right under my face, which was already glued to the sticky skin. A gallon or more of that toxic ooze Jason warned us about leaked out all over me, albeit at 1/7th speed, but it didn’t matter. A big glop coated my cheek and stuck to it like glue, instantly burning my skin in normal time.

  You have the Demonic Plague. Permanently lose 1 level, 1 from all skill levels, and 1 point from all Attributes every hour. Permanently lose 1 Health per minute.

  There is no known cure.

  My Health bar turned purple and started pulsing.

  So did my Stamina.

  And my Mana.

  And my Mind.

  Great.

  I wasn’t too worried about the levels or the attribute points. I had plenty. This battle would probably be over before it made any difference. But I was worried about my Health. I’d be dead in 18 hours. Wait, what was I worried about? All I needed to do was rescue Emily and I’d be done with Reternity for good.

  Silver lining.

  Back to killing.

  I swung back up on top of the Behemoth’s arm, managing to get more of the purple goo all over me in the process.

  You have exposed yourself to a severe dose of the Demonic Plague. Permanently lose 6 levels, 6 skill levels, and 6 points from all Attributes every hour. Permanently lose 1 Health per minute.

  There is no known cure.

  Fabulous.

  Now I had 3 hours to live and my levels would sink like the Titanic: slow and steady with no chance of recovering. Where were those lifeboats? Nowhere in sight. Some of my less important skills would reach 0 before the hour was over. At least I had enough levels in my key combat skills. But I only had 10 minutes before my first level drop, assuming it was a steady drain. I’d probably feel the effects before then, but I wasn’t sitting around to pout about it.

  I climbed up the Behemoth’s slow moving arm, intent on stabbing him through the eye. The Mana charge in my saber was about half capacity, but I didn’t want to risk using it while I was standing on what I guessed was highly conductive purple goo. Doing so might close the circuit between me and it, and I’d fry myself in the process. I’d have to hope for Critical Hits.

  Watching the big beast react to me in slow motion as I neared its face was bizarre in the extreme. He was trying to squint his eyes, trying to use a hand to swat me away, but it was taking forever for his giant hand to find me. Now I knew how houseflies felt when they laughed at my feeble attempts to catch them by hand. Too easy.

  I stepped right up onto the Behemoth’s bulbous collar bone. Planted my feet firmly, ready to stab him right in his ostrich egg of an eye. It was quite slippery despite him moving in slow motion. I wanted to grab his stumpy wrinkled ear to steady myself, but more purple goo was leaking from his ear canal. I didn’t want more Demonic Plague on my skin. So I stabbed away with my saber. It took several attempts to fully puncture the goo-filled orb, but eventually I popped it, driving my saber in as deeply as possible. The tip went so deep, it buried itself in bone. When I tried to withdraw it, i
t wouldn’t come out. I had to use booth hands and plant my boot on one of the Behemoth’s bloated purple throat sacks to get enough leverage to release it. I finally yanked it loose, but I’d wasted precious seconds. And now that my saber was out, purple goo spouted from the wound at 1/7th speed. I recoiled in disgust, but easily avoided the slow-moving gelatinous spray.

  Then I went to work on the thing’s neck, looking for a jugular vein. I needed to pick my shots carefully. My Snake Strike clock had already ticked down to 7 seconds remaining.

  Because the Behemoth was still moving, the angle of his torso was changing and I had a hard time keeping my balance and was losing my footing alarmingly fast. As a safety precaution, I activated Snake Strike again, before it ran out. I didn’t know if I was wasting my remaining 7 seconds or if they were cumulative, but I didn’t want to risk Snake Strike running out while I was still standing on the Behemoth’s neck. If that happened, I wouldn’t have time to reactivate it before the Behemoth grabbed me and threw me across the battlefield.

  Not enough Stamina!

  Shit.

  Could I activate Snake Strike level 5 or 4?

  Not enough Stamina!

  Not enough Stamina!

  Level 3 or 2 or 1?

  Not enough Stamina!

  Not enough Stamina!

  Not enough Stamina!

  Oh, shit.

  Not wanting to waste any of my 4 remaining seconds, I stabbed wildly at the Behemoth’s neck, hoping to hit his jugular by chance. Unfortunately, I ended up skewering his neck sack like a pin cushion. With half a second remaining on Snake Strike, I turned and dropped down to the sloppy black mud. My plan was to land as gracefully as a cat, then run between the Behemoth’s legs before he had a chance to react.

  This is what really happened: half way to the ground, the Behemoth’s remaining eye started tracking me and followed my trajectory.

  Worse, instead of landing like a cat, I landed like a one-legged dog, falling nearly 12 feet and smacking into the ground at an awkward angle. On impact, I lost 10% of my Health. Luckily the ground was muddy and somewhat soft, otherwise I probably would’ve broken an ankle or an elbow.

  Behemoth didn’t care.

  He coiled his arm high in the air, prepared to hammer me with a mammoth fist the size of prize bull. His fist wasn’t the size of bull’s fist. It was the size of an entire bull. All of it was about to come crashing down on me.

  I cringed, barely having the time to ponder how long I had left to live. Let me tell you, the moment felt 100% real. The adrenalin exploding through my veins did not lie.

  I was about to die.

  And I was looking right in Behemoth’s one angry eye.

  He was going to kill me.

  FWIZZ!

  FWIZZ!

  FWIZZ!

  Golden arrows blazed through the air in pairs, all six of them hitting Behemoth in the face. His good eye burst, shooting out more poison purple goo.

  FWIZZ!

  FWIZZ!

  FWIZZ!

  Layna fired more arrows as she strode toward the hulking beast with determined purpose.

  Talk about sight for sore eyes. Mine, not the Behemoth’s. His were pretty damn sore right about now.

  The Behemoth threw up an arm to block yet more arrows as Layna’s twin arrow attack double-tapped him again and again. Despite all the damage she and I had both done, this thing was huge and wasn’t going down easy. It swung a gigantic arm the size of a city bus at Layna, sweeping it low over the ground. Layna jumped over it like a fricking ninja. The second she landed, she fired more arrows. The beastly Behemoth used its momentum to yank its wrecking ball chunk out of the ground with a roar before reversing direction and whipping it back toward Layna.

  While the Behemoth was distracted, I crawled out of the way and pushed myself to my feet.

  The blind Behemoth swung its chain in a wild horizontal sweeping attack.

  Layna dove out of the way of certain death just in time, but the chain kept going and the steel wrecking chunk swung back around, obliterating several more dead black trees.

  Da-Ga-Ga-GOOOM!!

  “Jesus!” I shouted, afraid Emily was in one of them.

  Since I was out of Snake Strike, it was time to unleash my fully charged saber at the Behemoth.

  Cha-KOOM!!!!

  Instead of winking out, the bolt sustained itself, arcing and jumping erratically as more mana stabbed into the beast. The Behemoth spasmed like it’d been hit by the world’s largest taser. Somehow, I kept pumping more and more Mana down my arm. My mana bolt finally faded and the electric current fizzled away, sparking a few more times across the Behemoth’s body before dying out. The beast crumpled to its knees.

  Purple goo spewed out of its leaking neck sack.

  Layna sprayed it with arrows.

  FWIZZ!

  FWIZZ!

  FWIZZ!

  The putrid smell of burning behemoth skin punched me in the face. It was truly horrendous and I started gagging while my eyes watered. I stumbled back in a rush, trying to escape the acrid stench and the flailing Behemoth. With my eyes squinted half-closed, I couldn’t miss the ominous pulsing of my four purple status bars. All of them had slipped a notch or three since I’d last looked. I needed to do something quick before the Behemoth destroyed more trees or me.

  “Ka-KROKE! Ka-KROKE! Ka-KROKE!”

  I spun around to face 3 badass looking Toadax. Their throats puffed out like puke yellow balloons in synch with their croaking. All were over 7 feet tall. Each one wore armor and was armed with a sharp deadly blade that rippled with poisonous black energy.

  Layna was busy behind me with the Behemoth, the rest of Jason and his team were fighting for their lives, so I was on my own with these Toadax.

  “Hey, guys. I hear Compound-W is great for removing warts. Works on frogs too. Freeze those nasty things right off.”

  “Ka-KROKE!”

  “Ka-KROKE!”

  “Ka-KROKE!”

  They weren’t amused.

  I was just buying time until my saber charged. It was only about 1/8th full and moving slower than usual. I must’ve really drained my Mana on the Behemoth, or the Demonic Plague was kicking in.

  Swa-THAP!

  Faster than a fist, one of the Toadax’s tongues shot from its huge mouth and stuck to the hilt of my saber like SuperGlue. Make that SuperGoop because the tongue dripped sticky saliva in buckets. Then the Toadax ripped my saber from my grasp and whipped it into its free hand, grabbing it by the hilt.

  I suddenly realized something unnerving. My lightning saber didn’t require any special training. Could a Toadax use it too? Worse, the saber still held a mana charge. My Mana charge.

  Ka-ZAP!

  Lightning struck me and I danced.

  Oh my fuck, did it hurt.

  Every muscle in my body locked up, trying to tear my tendons from my bones. My Health dropped to 50% and I fell face first in the mud. I lay there for several moments, wondering what had happened. Was my hair smoking? Felt like it. Through half-lidded eyes I stared up at the Toadax.

  The one with my saber went, “Kath kath kath kath!”

  Was he laughing?

  “Kath! Kath! Kath! Kath!”

  Yup.

  I spit mud out of my mouth and grumbled, “At least when I log out of this piece, I’m not a warty ass frog-faced bitch like you three.”

  The Toadax with my saber looked at it like he didn’t know what to do with it.

  I scowled, “Ha ha, fuck face. No more charge.”

  And then… my saber started to glow. Was he charging it with his own Mana? I examined him.

  Toadax Rager

  Level: 17

  Health | Stamina: 850 | 800

  Mana | Mind: 386 | 220

  Armor: 135

  ===============

  Good | Evil: - | 180

  Law | Chaos: - | 170

  ===============

  Shit.

  He had plenty of Mana.

  I wat
ched his Mana drop by the second as the saber glowed brighter and brighter.

  Fabulous. I was about to be fried and fricasseed by a toad using my own sword.

  “Hey, you guys should open a Bayou Bistro and serve Logan Legs. I hear they’re real popular down south. All breaded in buttermilk, fried, then you dip ’em in Creole mustard sauce. Mmm, mmm, child. Doesn’t get any better than that.”

  “Kath?” the Toadax said.

  That’s when I realized the Toadax weren’t dumb frogs. They had over 200 Mind points each. Yeah, well I had 3150 and I hadn’t used a single point since this battle started. Suck on that, dumbass.

  “Hey, Froggy. You in the middle. Give me my sword back.” I pushed.

  “Kath?”

  “Shit. Do you guys not speak English?”

  “Kath.”

  “Ka-kroke,” the one on the left said.

  “Kaka-kroke,” the one on the right said.

  They all took a step forward, looming over me with their wicked weapons. My saber glowed blue-bright in the hand of the toad in the middle.

  Turned out my master plan of Froggy Domination was a bust.

  Why?

  Because I didn’t speak frog.

  Guh-Guh-Guh-GOOM!!!!

  In unison, me and the frogs all turned to look.

  The blind Behemoth’s steel chain bomb splintered several more trees as it flailed around. Layna was still engaged with it, easily dodging attacks and peppering it with more arrows, but it hadn’t gone down. Lucky for Layna the damn thing was completely blind, otherwise, it would’ve already killed her.

  Meanwhile, these 3 toadies were ready to dead me.

  Why hadn’t my Word of Power worked? Maybe it was the intent that counted, the emotional content, as Bruce Lee had famously said. I mustered all the Mind energy I had and shouted at the Toadax holding my saber, pushing hard, “STOP!”

  It blinked its big toad eyes with the sideways rectangle pupils, but it merely hesitated. I called it an it because I couldn’t tell a boy frog from a girl frog. Could you?